TUMBT : Chapter 55

The silk thread’s burning speed was very slow. The Third Prince originally wanted to let Mu Xueshi himself slowly and fully experience the feeling of an impending doom, even just for once. Mu Xueshi, however, held out until the very last moment, and without restraint, he took this chance to vent out. He disregarded everything else, his mind was in so much chaos, and on top of that, his mouth babbled nonsense.

“Although we got to know each other for only two days, when I first saw you, I immediately thought that you could help me. I was really blind. I thought that you were a good person… I was ugly in my previous life, and nobody wanted to talk to me. I didn’t expect that in this life, things would be the same… It was only you who didn’t abandon me. You came back to save me from that wasteland. You even allowed me to eat your food… To sleep… To sleep in your bed. I may just be a prisoner, but I know… We have a good relationship, otherwise you wouldn’t treat me this way. I’m certain that you must have had difficulties. I believed that you would help me… But in the end, you still tormented me… I know that I’m not the smartest person around… and despite all that, I still thought that after this, I would come back to see you again…”

The more that he spoke, the more that he was sad. Although in the end, the Third Prince had not heard what Mu Xueshi had said clearly, and he just saw snot and tears flowing down his face. Those words that he spoke of, the Third Prince understood them all, and he could not find any trace of deception. In spite of the Third Prince repeatedly warning himself that in this palace, feelings did not matter.

Forget his own younger brother, even his own biological father sent him into this evil imperial palace, and he also sincerely kowtowed before him and called him the Third Prince.

Moreover, this person lost his memory. Even if Mu Xueshi did not lose his memory, he, himself was nothing more than a stranger to the Third Prince. Mu Xueshi never knew that he had an elder brother who was thrown away into the imperial palace. 14

The moment that Mu Xueshi collapsed to the ground, he did not know that he still had time to do this useless thought. This was really heart-breaking. Perhaps he did not have a friend since he was young. Once in a while, there would be someone willing to come close to him, which he regarded as the greatest favor for himself… He never thought that in his heart, he would long for someone’s acceptance and concern.

Slowly losing any sense of hope, Mu Xueshi looked closely at the spark as he cried out loud. There was no need to go back. No one would care if he could go back or not anyway. His mother would not realize that her own child went missing…

“Xi*…” Mu Xueshi muttered unclearly. He was hoping that the Third Prince would tell him his name, because he wanted to know the name of the man that both saved and destroyed him.

But before the word “hope*” was spoken out. Mu Xueshi had already lost consciousness.

He only remembered that the moment when he closed his eyes, the spark had already reached his lips, and the Third Prince asked him a question. He was asking him how did he know his name.

Mu Xueshi was astonished in his heart. He remembered Ye Lu Xi was the given name of the other prince. Could it be that he read it wrong? Did it bear the same meaning? Mu Xueshi has not said a word. With this at-sixes-and-sevens [1] doubt and tremendous panic, he hopelessly closed his eyes. That was it, he did not want to wake up. He did not want to see his bloody mouth opened wide like a sacrificial bowl.

([1]「乱七八糟」luànqībāzāo – everything in disorder.)

The Third Prince snuffed out the spark on that silk thread that already reached Mu Xueshi’s neckline, with both a surprised and moved expression. In this world, besides his own mother, there were people who knew his own pet name?

Xi’er*…

It has been a long time since he heard this nickname. The Third Prince looked back, deep in his own memories. He did not know how Mu Xueshi actually failed to differentiate his and another prince’s name. 2

Usagi notes: What Mu Xueshi uttered was 「希」which was pronounced as “Xi” and meant “hope” in English. In the next part where we added an asterisk (*), the Chinese character enclosed in quotation marks that was used was「望」which also meant “hope” in English. He wanted to say that he was hoping to know the Third Prince’s name. Because of this, Mu Linxi thought Mu Xueshi knew his real name was「曦」which was pronounced as “Xi.”